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UNIT 8: NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS AND CIVIL SOCIETY IN

INDIA

Structure

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Objectives

8.3 The Rise of NGOs

8.4 NGO Sector in India

8.5 Classification of NGOs

8.6 Importance of NGOs

8.7 Summing Up

8.8 Glossary

8.9 Answers to Check Your Progress Exercises

8.10 References

8.11 Questions for Reflections and Practice

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8.1 INTRODUCTION

We are living in an era characterized by some as marked by the decline or retreat of the state.

The decline of the state is accompanied by an increasing attention towards civil society

institutions. Among the social groups and associations of various kinds that are considered to

make up civil society, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have become especially

prominent in the last two decades. In the years after Independence, people exhorted the state

to take the initiative with respect to social transformation; now the expectation is that NGOs
will perform the same role. Be it the field of education or health, providing drinking water,

organizing forest-management groups or thrift societies for working women, NGOs are

supposed to take the lead. How has such a dramatic shift occurred? How have NGOs become

such an important part of civil society? In this Unit we will discuss all these aspects.

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8.2 OBJECTIVES

After studying this Unit, you should be able to:

 Explain the importance of Civil Society Organizations;

 Analyze the role of NGOs in development; and

 Evaluate the impact created by NGOs in development process.

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8.3 THE RISE OF NGOS

The rise of NGOs is one of the central processes in the sphere of development since the

1980s. This period also coincides with the demise of developmentalism as a project of the

nation-state and the rise of post-developmentalist neo-liberal political economy (or what has

also been described as market triumphalism). In what is often characterized as a move from

inefficient states to efficient markets, NGOs hold a distinctive mediating position. Given the

profound implications of the NGO involvement in development, there is a great need to

critically examine the changing relations among NGOs, state agencies, multilateral and

bilateral funding institutions and other social groups. This situation has great bearing on the
way in which we conceive of the process of social change and the roles of different social

actors within it. Students of the sociology of organizations, political sociology, sociology of

social movements and sociology of development need to pay greater attention to the

phenomenon of NGOs.

By and large, sociologists have not given the phenomenal growth of NGOs the critical

attention that it requires. There are hardly any systematic studies of their membership: what is

the socio-economic background of the activists associated with them? Similarly, there are no

attempts to analyse the NGOs as organizations: what are the dynamics and the process of

decision-making within them? We know almost nothing about the power relationships within

these groups and associations, nor do we known about the forms and channels of

participation that affect the power relationship (Fisher 1997: 456). The literature on NGOs

mainly consists of broad descriptive histories and, sometimes, generalized accounts of their

achievements in the form of evaluation studies.

One of the reasons for the absence of rigorous studies is perhaps the close collaboration

between academics and the NGOs’ practical work. Often, social scientists have close links

with NGOs, and since many NGOs operate in the cross-disciplinary space between academic

research and activist intervention (policy study and advocacy, training and capacity building,

social work and service delivery, etc.), they offer to academics many opportunities to pursue

their work in the domain of non-academics practice. This collaboration has prevented many

scholars from subjecting NGOs to the same scrutiny as other social institutions.
Although NGOs claim to believe in openness and transparency, many of them are not open to

scrutiny by outsiders. Those who have achieved a degree of success and fame are often

hostile to any objective studies by outsiders not approved by them.

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8.4 NGO SECTOR IN INDIA

The NGO sector in India is characterized by tremendous diversity and heterogeneity.

Ignoring this diversity, unfounded generalizations are often put forward and unfair comments

and criticisms are offered. NGOs differ from one another in size, funding and functions; in

the levels at which they operate; and in organizational structures, goals and membership

(Fisher 1997: 447). There are over 14,000 NGOs registered under the Foreign Contributions

Regulations Act. In all, there may be over 30,000 NGOs in India.

There are many definitions of NGOs. The voluntary sector includes non-governmental, non-

profit organizations. They may be engaged in a variety of activities: implementing

grassroots/sustainable development, promoting human rights and social justice, protesting

against environmental degradation and many other similar tasks. Some activists resent and

reject the term NGO and instead designate themselves as social action groups, political action

groups or social movements (see Kothari 1993). Anna Hazare’s village development group at

Ralegan Siddhi in Maharashtra and Ela R. Bhatt’s Self-Employed Women’s Association

(SEWA) in Gujarat are both identified as NGOs, but are very different from each other in

terms of size, membership, funding, approaches, strategies and outcomes. These differences

only show that one should be very careful while making generalized statements about NGOs.

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8.5 CLASSIFICATION OF NGOS
Just as there are many definitions of NGOs, there are several classifications too. Ghanshyam

Shah and H.R. Chaturvedi (1983) divide NGOs into three main categories: techno-

managerial, reformist and radical. Indira Hirway (1995) classifies NGOs in Gujarat into

welfare-oriented (including health and education) development organization and empowering

NGOs. Sudarshan Iyengar (1998) classifies NGOs in Gujarat into four categories: Gandhian,

service delivery organizations, professional organizations and mobilization organizations.

D.C. Korten (1990: 115-27) distinguishes three generations of NGOs: the first, committed to

relief and welfare; a second, attending to small-scale, local development projects; and a third,

consisting of community organizations interested in building coalitions. C. Elliot (1987) has

outlined a similar typology of NGOs based on distinctions among charity, development and

empowerment work.

In Korten’s (1990) view, the firs generation relief and welfare NGOs, which predominate in

the developing world, often have close tie with state an international development aid

organization and do not overtly engage in political activities. The second-generation

development NGOs organize individuals locally to address issues like public health and

agricultural development. These groups frequently help their constituents to overcome

structural constraints, to challenge local and regional elites and to assist in reducing

dependency relationships. The third generation NGOs explicitly target political constraints,

engaging in mobilization and ‘conscientization’. Their focus in on co-ordinating

communications and linkages among people’s organizations. These networks help to spread

awareness of the practical local successes of some second generation development strategies

and to serve as catalysts for wider social movements. However, these types are more ideal

than real and not mutually exclusive (Fisher 1997:448).

In the literature on NGOs, there are several positive cases of the very poor people

successfully organizing themselves. The SEWA at Ahmedabad is one such example. Bhatt

(1998:146-61) has described the activities of The SEWA Bank, one of several organizations

working under the SEWA umbrella. The SEWA Bank has organized thousands of poor

working women and mobilized them to run a co-operative bank, which encourages savings

and fulfils their credit requirements for consumption, trading and production purposes. Its

annual turnover runs into crores of rupees. George Mathew (1999: 529-34) has pointed out

several instances in which panchayats and NGOs have worked together using their

complementary skills and resources to achieve common goals.

Check Your Progress Exercise 2

Note: i. Use the space given below to answer the questions.

ii. Compare your answer with the one given at the end of this Unit.

1. List the different classification of NGOs

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As reported elsewhere (see Attwood and Baviskar 2002), NGOs sometimes try to fill the gap

between informal savings groups and dysfunctional, state-run ‘co-operative’ credit systems.
In 1976, the Grameen Bank, a new type of NGO, was established in Bangladesh. The bank

advanced only small loans to poor people, primarily women organized into small groups. As

with informal saving groups, group discipline ensures loans repayment. Other NGOs in

Bangladesh have established similar ‘micro-credit’ programmes. The Grameen Bank system

of small-group discipline seems particulary effective in reducing poverty and promoting

women’s empowerment (Hashemi et al. 1996). Yet, cultivation of group discipline entails

high administrative costs, paid by external donors.

In Andhra Pradesh, an experiment in Women’s Thrift Co-operatives (WTCs) was launched in

1990 under the auspices of the Co-operative Development Foundation (CDF), a local NGO

based in Hyderabad. WTCs raise funds solely through small, regular contributions from their

members, who earn interest on savings at 1 per cent per month. For loans, they pay 2 per

cent. A village WTC may consist of 200-500 women, divided into groups of 10-50. Group

discipline ensures excellent rates of loan recovery. Loans are used for household expenses,

including house repair, education and health care, as well as investments in agriculture,

livestock and small business.

In less than a decade, over 33,000 women formed 101 WTCs. As on 31 December 1998, their

combined savings totaled Rs 26 million, with no external grants or loans. The CDF provides

advice and support in established WTCs, but the latter soon become self-sufficient and self-

managing, a source of empowerment for their members. About half the member and leaders

come from landless households; another one-third have less than three acres of land (Biswas

and Mahajan 1997; Rajagopalan 1999).

If strong, vibrant and lively civil society is the foundation of modern-open-democratic polity,

NGOs are the very life-force for the civil society. Civil society and NGOs seem to go

together. One cannot exist without the other. Civil society, when it is not used as a synonym

for society in general, is used to refer to ‘that segment of society that interacts with the state,

influences the state and yet is distinct from the state’ (Chazan 1992:281).

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8.6 Importance of NGOs

The growing prominence of NGOs in the field of development is strongly related to the

declining legitimacy of the state. Increasingly, the state is looked upon with suspicion, if not

contempt. It is considered to be corrupt, oppressive and anti-poor. Least governance is seen

as a sign of good governance. Post-developmentalist ideologies of neo-liberalism chose to

espouse the virtues of market enterprise. ‘Good governance’ is believed now to consist of two

functions: facilitating the free play of market forces and enabling decentralized institutions of

‘participatory management’ to be formed. Participatory management is the new mantra for

the provision of services through local municipalities and panchayats, as well as in the sphere

of natural-resource management. State structures are criticized as being rigidly bureaucratic

and corrupt and thus unsuited for performing either welfare or resource-management

functions; whereas, NGOs are seen as ‘civil society’ actors that are more accountable,

responsive and committed to bringing about social change. The state is seen as consisting of

entrenched interests and styles of functioning that make it unwilling and unable to work with

people, a role that NGOs are supposed to be good at. Thus, NGOs have emerged to perform a

bridging function, taking on functions that the state is unsuited for, and are performing them

with lower overheads, greater efficiency and motivation. Increasingly, it is not only funding

institutions but the state itself that accepts the presence of NGOs and, in fact, expects them to
take over certain tasks. This new set of institutional linkages between the state agencies and

NGOs, between state and ‘civil society’, needs to be explored more thoroughly.

The Indian state was initially indifferent, if not hostile, to encouraging NGOs in the sphere of

development, although charity and relief organizations were tolerated to a certain extent. This

climate changed after the mid 1980s. First, in the Seventh Five-Year Plan (1985-90) and later

in the Eighth Five- Year Plan (1992-97), the government openly welcomed and encouraged

participation of NGOs in the development sphere. Recently, the state has sanctioned about

Rs. 1.5-2 billion annually for NGO funding, which is a substantial amount (Patel 1998: 47).

Such a significant presence of NGOs in our civil society is not so common elsewhere. In

October 1992, while speaking on the role of NGOs in India’s rural development at the

American University in Cairo, I was told by senior faculty members during discussion time

that there were hardly any NGOs in the development field in Egypt. In India, they are so

ubiquitous that we take them for granted, just as we take our democratic political set-up for

granted. Amartya Sen (1986: 30-40) has brought out the significance of India being an open

democratic society in his comparison with China where nearly 23 million people died during

a famine in 1958-61 and the world at large did not even hear about it for decades. In the

Indian political system, with a free press, opposition parties and a large number of NGOs,

such an occurrence could never have happened.

Many international agencies, such as the World Bank, which were earlier working

exclusively through national governments, now prefer to work through NGOs in

implementing some of their projects. In one of its review of such programmes (Gibbs et al.

1999), the Bank has noted several positive aspects of working through NGOs without giving

up some of its reservations. It is noted that the NGOs are far less constrained by bureaucratic
procedures and administrative inefficiencies. What is more important for the Bank is the

relative absence of blatant corruption and leakages in the channeling of funds. This absence

results in a much greater share of benefits reaching the targeted groups than is likely to

happen while working through the state machinery.

However, one should be cautious in generalizing from some of these developments. One

should not jump to the conclusion that the state is retreating. Those who benefit from state

structures are well entrenched. One should not rule out the possibility of the state trying to

co-opt. NGOs to retain its supremacy, rather than retreating from the scene.

NGOs are now an organizational form to which considerable social prestige adheres; they are

in an advantageous position to secure contracts and consultancies. They provide opportunities

for social enterprise for many individuals and social groups. The range of NGO activities

spans a vast spectrum.

On the one hand, there is the case of Joint Forest Management (JFM), where a caucus of

NGOs mobilized by the Society for the Promotion of Wastelands Development (a

government-initiated NGO) helped to reform government rules regarding JFM in several

states to make them more equitable and democratic, especially with respect to women’s rights

(see Jeffery and Sundar 1999).

On the other hand, there is the case of an NGO in Andhra Pradesh in the animal husbandry

sector that systematically misappropriated funds for several years, while the Delhi office of

their foreign donors turned a blind eye to this for fear of attracting adverse publicity.
State corruption and NGO complicity had a field day in the Council for Advancement of

People’s Action and Rural Technology (CAPART), the government body set up to fund

grassroots NGOs, where fund were disbursed and later evaluations. There are several

instances of NGOs being started by bureaucrats (retired or in service), academics and

politicians - sometimes for sincere contributions to social development, and often as a

conduit for receiving funds with scant work to show for them. Given the cross-over of the

personnel between the state and NGOs, the contrast between their institutional structures and

ideologies may well be overdrawn.

As with other agencies, the cases of outstanding success in the NGO sector are few and far

between. Whenever a case is perceived as successful, there is an attempt to replicate it

elsewhere: for instance, the SEWA in Gujarat was persuaded to start branches in other states.

One has to find out if these efforts succeeded as much as the original. The co-operative dairy

complex represented by Amul at Anand in Gujarat is another famous example. From 1970 to

1995, there was a huge programme called ‘Operation Flood’, funded by the European Union

and World Bank to replicate the Anand pattern all over the country. It did not work (see

Baviskar 1999). Impressed by the success and vitality of sugar co-operatives in Maharashtra,

the central government encouraged similar projects in other states. Most of them failed.

Inspired by the outstanding success of Anna Hazare bringing about all-round development at

Ralegan Siddhi in Maharashtra, the state government persuaded him to accept the

chairmanship of committee to replicate the experiment all over the state. The committee was

to select one village from each taluka and thus, create about 300 Ralegan Siddhis across the

state. He was given the necessary financial and other support. However, the political parties

had their own agendas. Their representatives, such as the MLAs and others, pulled in

different directions. The state bureaucracy was lukewarm in its support since it resented
Hazara’s critical stance towards it. Hazare had to give up the mission when he encountered

the problems of replication under state patronage. He is much more chastened after this

experience. The issue of replicability is linked to the question of scale. How adequate are

NGOs when they attempt to substitute for the state and take on tasks that, in order to make

any kind of dent in terms of social problems, must be conceived on a nation – wide or state-

wide scale?

Whereas many NGOs espouse democratic decentralization, the working of their own

organization is often idiosyncratic, with authority being vested in one charismatic figure who

started the NGO. Structures for the redressal of employee grievances, mandatory in most

formal organizations, are often absent in NGOs where personalized management practices

tend to prevail over more impersonal rule-based procedures. This contradiction has been the

source of conflict in at least two well-known cases, where worker were forced to leave the

organization at the behest of the founders. Whereas state structures are at least formally rule

governed, the same is not true of NGOs where the spirit of voluntarism is sometimes used to

obscure exploitation and manipulation.

NGOs often seem to indulge in double standards. When criticizing state structures, they plead

for openness, transparency and democratic participation. However, many of them do not

seem to observe these norms in their own functioning. Crucial decisions are often taken at the

top by the senior leaders without any scope for ordinary workers to participate in decision-

making deliberations. The leaders are most reluctant to openly discuss the matters relating to

funding. They talk enthusiastically about the current and future programmes but not about the

sources and quantum of funding. That is why, when Bunker Roy of the Social Work and

Research Center (SWRC), Tilonia announced open scrutiny of the finances of his
organization, it made headlines. He offered to open the accounts in a public meeting and

answer any questions relating to them. No other NGO has come forward with a similar offer.

Similarly, Roy sparked off controversy by suggesting a code of conduct for NGOs. His move

was strongly opposed in several quarters. It was considered to be an attack on the freedom of

NGOs and an attempt to control them through regimentation.

Check Your Progress Exercise 2

Note: i. Use the space given below to answer the questions.

ii. Compare your answer with the one given at the end of this Unit.

1. Give one criticism about the functioning of NGOs,

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Many NGOs find it hard to resolve the problem of succession and routinization. Having been

set up with the initiative of some dynamic and charismatic leader who inspires a following

and support, the organization finds it difficult to continue once the leader is removed from the

scene. It may lose its old élan and spirit. Routinization with impersonal rules and regulations

has the same effect.

It is now recognized that development requires not only the ‘hardware’ of investment in

physical infrastructure, but also the ‘software’ of developing human capabilities. Without

capacity building for managing institution, learning legal-rational procedures for decision-

making and accounting, raising questions and suggesting alternatives, development will not

be socially sustainable. NGOs have been entrusted with the task of developing this

‘software’. This raises problems of its own. By and large, NGOs that receive external funds

are expected to fulfil physical and financial targets, show tangible results (how much money

spent, how many trees planted, how many people trained, etc.), but without regard to the

quality of the output. Often, the expected output is hard to measure since it is difficult to

come up with quantifiable indicators of empowerment. After thousands of training workshops

and orientation tours have been held, it is still not clear at the end of the day exactly how the

cause of development has been served. Yet, the pressing need to meet physical targets (the

requirement of bureaucratic accounting practices) often forces NGOs to take shortcuts so that

the more gradual and open-ended process of empowerment is compromised.

While NGOs are often critical of politicians and bureaucracy for misusing and

misappropriating public money earmarked for development, the NGO record is not so

exemplary. Recently it was reported that NGOs have not submitted grants utilization

certificates amounting to several crores of rupees. They have been warned that no further

grants will be released till they submit utilization certificates.

The economy and efficiency claimed on behalf of NGOs is only relatively superior. When the

late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi revealed that less than 15 per cent of the total money spent

by the government on development programmes reached the targeted beneficiaries, there was

a wave of shock and surprise. According to some calculations, this proportion may be 20 per
cent in the case of NGOs, which also spend substantial amounts on their own salaries and

infrastructure. The difference in terms of benefits to the poor may not be so great after all

(Ramachandran 1998:170).

The issue of accountability is also raized by the dependence of NGOs on external sources of

funding. Ever since the issue of foreign funding was raized by the CPI (M)-leader Prakash

Karat (1984), characterizing it as an imperialist strategy of penetration into neo-colonial

setting, the debate crops up again and again. Opinion is sharply divided among NGOs

themselves on these issues. While Bunker Roy is willing to accept a ban on foreign funding,

many others are vehemently opposed to it.

Before the last general elections, several highly respected NGOs, such as the Indian Social

Institute and Ankur, were asked by the government to show cause why their FCRAs (permits

under Foreign Contributions Regulation Act) should not be cancelled because they had

supported an anti-communal advertising campaign. Any overtly political NGO activity that

seems to threaten the status quo may thus be attacked by the state or by a political party.

Moreover the issue of funding gives the state a convenient leverage over NGOs.

Conflicts among NGO, donor, state and grassroots agendas and under-standings are also

exemplified in the recent controversy over ‘Sahayog’, and NGO in the UP hills that produced

a booklet about AIDS and reproductive health using ‘explicit’ language. This NGO, led by

urban-educated upper-class activists and funded by the MacArthur Foundation, ran afoul of

local sentiments as mobilized by the Bharatiya Janata Party activist. This controversy shows

also that the issue of representation (whose concerns do NGOs voice?) needs to be examined

more carefully. The belief that NGOs represent the view of vulnerable social groups, or are
sympathetic and empathetic towards them, a belief that has been used to justify the greater

reliance on NGOs for development, needs closer scrutiny.

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8.7 SUMMING UP

NGOs have been around for quite some time and they are likely to remain with us in the

foreseeable future. Systematic studies are required to say anything with confidence about

them. In the absence of such studies, our understanding of NGOs will remain vague,

superficial and hazy. Sociologists of organizations, political sociologists and sociologists of

development all need to pay serious attention to them. Such a cumulative effort will enable us

not only to understand NGOs but also their contribution to development and social change.

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8.8 GLOSSARY

Good Governance: Good governance is an indeterminate term used in development

literature to describe how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public

resources in order to guarantee the realization of human rights. The concept of "good

governance" often emerges as a model to compare ineffective economies or political bodies

with viable economies and political bodies.

Participatory Management: Participatory management is the practice of empowering

people and other stakeholders to participate in organizational decision making.

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8.9 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS EXERCISES

Check Your Progress Exercise 1

1. Just as there are many definitions of NGOs, there are several classifications too.

Ghanshyam Shah and H.R. Chaturvedi divide NGOs into three main categories:

techno-managerial, reformist and radical. Indira Hirway classifies NGOs in Gujarat

into welfare-oriented (including health and education) development organization and

empowering NGOs. Sudarshan Iyengar classifies NGOs in Gujarat into four

categories: Gandhian, service delivery organizations, professional organizations and

mobilization organizations. D.C. Korten distinguishes three generations of NGOs: the

first, committed to relief and welfare; a second, attending to small-scale, local

development projects; and a third, consisting of community organizations interested

in building coalitions. C. Elliot has outlined a similar typology of NGOs based on

distinctions among charity, development and empowerment work.

Check Your Progress Exercise 2

1. NGOs often seem to indulge in double standards. When criticizing state structures,

they plead for openness, transparency and democratic participation. However, many

of them do not seem to observe these norms in their own functioning. Crucial

decisions are often taken at the top by the senior leaders without any scope for

ordinary workers to participate in decision-making deliberations. The leaders are most

reluctant to openly discuss the matters relating to funding. They talk enthusiastically
 about the current and future programmes but not about the sources and quantum of

funding.

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8.10 REFERENCES

Awasthi, Ramesh, ‘Rural Development through People’s Mobilisation: A Case Study of

Ralegan Siddhi’, in M.L. Dantwala, Harsh Sethi and Pravin Visaria (eds), Social Change

through Voluntary Action, pp. 74-69, New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1998.

Attwood, D.W. and B.S. Baviskar. , ‘Rural Co-operatives’, in Vandana Desai and Robert

B.Potter (eds), The companion to development Studies, pp.165-70. London: Arnold,2002.

Baviskar, Amita. , In the Belly of the River: Tribal Conflicts over Development in the

Narmada Valle, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Baviskar, B.S. , ‘Dairy Revolution: Inflated Claims and Modest Gains’, Review article in

Journal of Indian School of Political Economy 11(3):559-68, 1999.

Baviskar, B.S. and D.W. Attwood., Finding the Middle Path: The Political Economy of Co-

operation in Rural India, Boulder and London: Vestview Press, 1995.

Bhatt, Ela R. , ‘Empowering the Poor through Micro-Finance: The SEWA Bank’, in M.L.

Dantwala, Harsh Sethi and Pravin Visaria (eds), Social Change through Voluntary Action,

pp. 146-61,. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1998.

Biswas, Arun and Vijay Mahajan, Sustainable Banking with the Poor: A Case Study on

Women’s Thrift Co-operative System in Warangal and Karimnagar Districts of Andhra

Pradesh, Hyderabad: Co-operative Development Foundation, 1997.

Chazan, N. , ‘Africa’s Democratic Challenge’, World Policy Journal 9(2): 279-307,1992.

Dantwala, M.L., Harsh Sethi and Pravin Visaria (eds). , Social Change through Voluntary

Action, New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1998.

Dhangagare, D.N. , “Action Groups and Social Transformation in India, Lokayan Bulletin

6(5): 37 – 59, 1988.

Elliot, C. , ‘Some Aspect of Relations between the North and South in the NGO Practices’,

Annual Review of Anthropology 26:439-64, 1987.

Gibbs, Christopher, Claudia Fumo and Thomas Kuby. , Non-Governmental Organisations in

World Bank Supported Projects: A Review, Washington, D.C.: The World Bank, 1999.

Hashemi, S.M., S.R. Schuler and A.P.Riley. , ‘Rural Credit Programs and Women’s

Empowerment in Bangladesh’, World Development 24(4):635-53, 1996.

Hirway, Indira., ‘Selective Development and Widening Disparities in Gujarat’, Economic

and Political Weekly 30 (41-42): 14-21, 1995.

Iyengar, Sudarshan. 1998. ‘Voluntary Initiatives for Tribal Development in Gujarat’, The

Journal of Entrepreneurship 7(2): 211-35, 1998.

Jeffery, Roger and Nandini Sundar (eds), A New Moral Economy for India’s Forests?

Discourses of Community and Participation, New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1999.

Karat, Prakash., ‘Action Groups/Voluntary Agencies: A Factor in Imperialist Strategy’, The

Marxist 2(2): 19-54, 1984.

Korten, D.C. 1990. Getting to the 21st Century: Voluntary Action and Global Agenda. West

Hartford, CT: Kumarian.

Kothari, Smitu, ‘Social Movements and Redefinition of Democracy’, in P. Oldenberg (ed.),

India Briefing, pp. 131-62, Boulder: Westview Press, 1993.

Mathew, George, ‘Decentralised Institutions: Governmental and Voluntary Sector’,

Economic and Political Weekly 34(9): 529-34, 1999.

Patel, Rohini, ‘Voluntery Organisation in India: Motivations and Roles’, in M.L. Dantwala,

Harsh Sethi and Pravin Visaria (eds), Social Change through Voluntary Action, pp. 40-56,

New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1998.

Rajagopalan, Shashi, ‘A New Generation of Co-operatives’, Paper presented at the Workshop

on ‘Public Management and Poverty Reduction in a Mixed Economy’ at the Lal Bahadur

Shastri National Academy of Administration. Musssoorie, 1999.

Ramachandran, Vimala, ‘Voluntary Organisations: Professional Agency or Sub-Contractor’,

in M.L. Dantwala, Harsh Sethi and Pravin Visaria (eds), Social Change through

Voluntary Action, pp. 162-73, New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1998.

Sen, Amartya, ‘How is India Doing?’, in Dilip K. Basu and Richard Sission (eds), Social and

Economic Development in India: A Reassessment, pp. 28-42, New Delhi: Sage

Publications, 1986.

Shah, Ghanshyam and H.R. Chaturvedi., Gandhian Approach to Rural Development: The

Valod Experiment, New Delhi: Ajanta Prakasha, 1983.

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8.11 QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTIONS AND PRACTICE

1. Explain the role of NGOs in Development process.

2. Critically evaluate the performance of NGOs.

3. Does the growing number of NGOs reflect the failure of state machinery?

Substantiate your arguments with suitable example.

4. Analyze the role of NGOs in women empowerment.